Video Fridays: U2

And marvelous, fresh, striking, and decidedly modern music it was. So enamored was I of the record, I was prone to making the grandiose statement that this album was as significant as The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”.

And, I still stand by that statement.

I’ll go many, many months without listening to U2 at all, but when I do make my way back to them the first album I reach for is Achtung Baby. To my ears, this 22-year old recording still sounds utterly contemporary, not dated in the least, timeless.

How many records can you really say that about?

Anyway, as I was listening to it this morning, a funny thing happened. As much as I appreciated Achtung Baby for how unconventional it sounded at the time it came out, how unlike any previous U2 music, how unlike anything else that I was hearing on the radio at the time, ironically, the one song that jumped out at me was the most conventional song on the album and certainly the biggest hit: One.

So, why’s that?

Because it’s simply a gorgeous song with a powerful, important message. It literally gives me chills.

One love
One life
When it’s one need
In the night
One love
We get to share it
Leaves you baby if you
Don’t care for it…

One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we’re not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other